Frank D’Elia, who will be conferred into The Order of St. Gregory, says “The church is my life.”
He closed his business as a general contractor when he was 62 and came to New Jersey, settling here for health reasons with his wife, Pauline. Born and raised in Philadelphia he said his family always came to Stone Harbor.
“I’ve been coming here since 1920,” Frank said.
He joined St. Paul Parish, Stone Harbor, and he made the church his home. He would open it in the morning and lock it at night, and serve as a Eucharistic minister and altar server, as well as on the parish council.
A carpenter by trade, he volunteered his expertise to do jobs around the church. “I built the shrines and balcony and choir room, among other things,” he told the Catholic Star Herald in 2008.
When his wife of 57 years died, Frank became even more involved with the church.
In 2010 St. Paul was merged with Maris Stella, Avalon, to form St. Brendan the Navigator Parish, Frank’s new home.
He is a fourth degree Knight and retired captain of the Knights of Columbus color corps.
While a member of the 1st Army and a tank commander, Frank was part of the assault on Normandy on June 6, 1944. He was awarded the Bronze Star.
He is a member of the Disabled War Veterans, and spent time in a veterans hospital. But being hospitalized did not prevent him from the annual retreat he makes at San Alfonso’s Retreat House in Long Branch, N.J.
“If you don’t give me a pass, I’ll walk out,” he told the hospital staff. He got the pass.
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